Fr. Leon shares his personal experience and the Messages of Medjugorje

[Music] thank you [Music] in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil amen Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and that the hour of our death amen glory be to the father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be World Without End Amen Our Lady Queen of Peace in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit thank you Father and eagle thank you to all of you for being here this evening my name is Father Leon Pereira I'm a Dominican Friar and a priest and I belong to the English Province and for the last four years I've been living in a place called medjugoria in the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Central Europe now medjugoria is this place where since the 24th of June 1981 it is alleged that the Blessed Virgin Mary has been appearing to six children I call them children the youngest is my age which is well nevermind I won't reveal my age but they're in their 40s and 50s okay and it is as father said a place a pilgrimage people go there a lot of people go there I first went there in 1991. I grew up in Singapore um I know I don't sound like I might have grown up in Singapore I lived most of my life in England hence the accent do I sound pot okay anyway so I grew up in Singapore and when I finished high school in Singapore when you finish high school you have to join the Army if you're a boy the girls always get away with murder so the girls all run off to college but the boys have to go into the army for two and a half years so I was in Infantry for two and a half years I broke my spine in two places and then I had to have an operation there's a metallic thing inside me fixing me together and then that was the stage after the operation that I first went to medjugoria I already believed in medjugori because a few years before that I heard about medjugoria and completely regained my faith thanks to medjugoria I I grew up in a Catholic Family you have to understand we prayed the Rosary every night before dinner I remember this clearly because you know when I was a kid sometimes it was a struggle because you know it meant we had to miss the first half an hour of Battlestar Galactica in favor of the Rosary the old version the older Battlestar Galactica anyway um so it was very Catholic atmosphere that I grew up in but when I was about 17 I semi-lapsed I fell in with a group of Evangelical Protestants I did the whole happy clappy wavy hands in the air like you just don't care business I'm much better now I'm cured okay but what drew me back was medjugoria medjugoria opened my eyes to the church fathers the sacred tradition and when I came back to the faith I was Furious I was angry because I thought how come I was never taught the faith properly you know after Vatican II this whole I don't know how many generations it's been two three generations after Vatican II we haven't really been taught the faith we were taught all sorts of nonsense you know oh the mass is a party it's a gathering of friends all that kind of rubbish completely not a rubbish right do you think it's rubbish it is of course it's rubbish think about it any child with half a brain can think I know a party which is much more fun I know a gathering of friends which is far more congenial we need to tell people the truth about the mass you know but I'll come to that later I'm getting ahead of myself now I wish I had been taught exciting stuff like Trinity Incarnation Grace Redemption sacraments mariology these kind of things grip a child's imagination it's only silly grown-ups who say oh no no it's too complicated for a child absolute utter rubbish children love to know where everything fits and we should teach them the truth instead of feelings and just and and watering down CCD is that what you guys call it here CCD catechesis to social justice issues and nothing more and we're depriving them of the faith if you can see that I'm getting a bit animated and angry I am I am and I remember at that time I prayed to God and I said please Lord make sure that I never ever become a heretic again and that's why God made me into a Dominican and not a Jesuit I didn't say that I didn't say that anyway all right so the soundness of the faith is something utterly important it is important period but it's also important to me and as I said I owe this to medjugoria so I the first time I went was 91 um and I was a Pious young man already by that stage I was 20 years old when I went I did not go looking for signs and wonders I am not keen on such things a lot of such things are reported you know you Catholics can get very enthusiastic and they kind of get from my perspective which I think is the correct one they get certain things in the wrong order for example let me say this to you put it this put it this way what would be more spectacular to you me walking on water or me drinking a glass of water what's more spectacular did you say both walking on water yeah of course it is now what is more amazing Jesus walking on water or Jesus asking the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink okay I know you've all gone quiet because you're thinking it sounds like the same is it a trick question it must be a trick question of course it's a trick question it is what's more spectacular well first of all who is Jesus who is Jesus feel free Son of God is he God yes Jesus is God now Jesus therefore is the one through whom and for whom and by whom every single molecule of water in the entire universe was made so what's more spectacular and what's more astounding the fact that he can walk on water you'd expect him to do be able to do that or the fact that he asks for a drink exactly I think it's far more astounding that he asked for a drink when he made every single molecule of water in the entire universe now the reason I say this is what I'm trying to say in my own clumsy way is look for the deeper truth look for what's genuinely more spectacular so if someone said to you you know they went up and received communion and when they received communion they saw angels coming out to the pillars and spinning around and throwing out all sorts of colors and things like that what should you tell them well I'm not sure what you should tell them I know you have to like nod politely and say that's marvelous or something but really what is more amazing is the fact that they receive communion because communion is really Jesus that really Jesus there is not just a symbol not just a spiritual presence it's really truly our Lord and savior body blood soul and divinity so the fact that they receive God is far more amazing than the fact that they saw angels coming out of the pillars right so that's important so whenever anyone talks about signs that they might have seen a Sign by definition must point to a reality assigned to Bedford Indiana points to Bedford it is not actually Bedford itself is it no it's not it's just pointing to it so in the same way signs from God must point to a reality they are not an end in themselves so for example you know a medjugoria lots of people say they see the miracle of the Sun or their rosaries have turned to gold or they smell roses inexplicably things like that these These are genuine signs I have to admit I've experienced all three myself many many times I don't even go looking for them but if they are signs they must point to a reality so you know when people get excited and say oh Father I saw the miracle of the Sun I say to them well what did it look like it looks initially like a big white host and so if it's a sign pointing to something what is it telling us it's telling us go to mass and stop looking at the sun if your Rosary turns to Gold it's telling you your Rosary is priceless it's worth more than gold it's not saying that you have the Midas touch and that you're going to make us all rich right if you smell roses you know it means I will a lady is the mystical Rose it's a sign of her presence there with you okay but do not get hung up on signs look for what the sign is pointing to the reality this is so important are you happy with this sofa okay at least one person is happy the rest of you I'm sorry now having told you all this this is the context of what I want to say next because I first went to medjugoria in 1991 I was 20 years old I was still in the Army post operation and I did not go looking for signs or wonders on my second last day in medjugoria I went to climb the mountain there are two mountains in medjugoria there's the the smaller one called Apparition Hill Port burdo and then there's the bigger one three times as high called cross mountains okay I went to climb the taller one cross Mountain and it was the 11th of September 1991. and we I went with my friend Kevin Kevin is a year younger than I am and we went at four in the morning and as we walked to the mountain a light appeared on the mountain where the cross is it was orange golden and beautiful and very bright and we prayed the rosary as we walked wondering what this thing was on the mountain and when we got close enough we saw we saw what it was and it stunned us into silence and we didn't talk about it to anyone for a while a good while maybe even years we only spoke about it between ourselves the light was in the shape of a young girl yeah there's someone in the front row a bit like that petite and she wore a veil on her head which hung straight down you know it didn't go drooping over her shoulders and she wore a very simple dress much simpler than my habit and she held her hands like this with the Palms on either side with the Palms facing forward and she her hands her face her clothes were all made of this orange Golden Light and she was beautiful and she was looking at us and she was filled with love for us we could feel that love I think I I was certainly in tears I didn't look at Kevin you know two teenage boys and crying you're not going to look at each other I assume he was he was blubbing he's never admitted to it then we climbed the mountain hoping to catch at the top and three quarters of the way up we looked out and on the left you could see the lower Hill Apparition Hill today there is a statue that marks the spot where our lady first appeared in those days it was a bare patch of ground with a wooden cross and the same young girl was standing there on the same spot with her hands in the same position but this time facing the church and the village and at the top of the mountain we found a couple from from Tallahassee and they had seen nothing I remember in my diary at the time I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this I wrote down elderly couple from Florida they were in the early 60s I think anyway so they had seen nothing we didn't tell them what we had seen we had no desire to talk about this because it kind of imposed the silence on us Kevin had his zoom lens and high-speed film and all that but something kind of told us don't take a picture do not cheapen this so we didn't and after that we went down the mountain mountain and we went to the church and the first mass had just finished so it was about half past seven in the morning and there were just three of us in the church Kevin was taking pictures of all the stained glass windows father petalubic who's one of the franciscans was watching him wondering what this strange Chinese dude up to and I was okay in Mexico in the church the statue of Our Ladies on that side Western Josephus and I was almost towards the back near pillar number four and I was standing there looking at the Statue and I was thinking what is this all about uh did I imagine this no but then Kevin saw it as well am I crazy uh who was that and what did it mean and while I was thinking these thoughts over and over again the second half happened which was a voice speaking inside me now before I continue we must remember what Saint Teresa of Avila tells us her good advice she says voices insiders come from either God or the devil or our imagination okay so while I will swear on the gospels until I die that on the 11th of September 1991 from four till six in the morning I saw on Cross mountain in in medjugoria I saw a beautiful young girl made of orange Golden Light I will swear to that but the voice inside me I couldn't swear to it because it could be from God it could be from the devil could be my imagination my friends who know me know that I have a hopeless imagination I'm very lousy at picking Christmas gifts you know if you got another pair of socks yeah that was me sorry um and as for the devil I don't think he would have said such good things now the voice it was a woman's voice a very beautiful voice and she spoke in English and people often ask me what kind of accent did she have I am not aware of her having an accent at all but you have to understand I'm not aware that I have an accent you know because all around the states when I go speaking people say to me you have an accent you know so I can only do a Southern accent I'm sorry you have an accurate okay sorry I apologize that's a terrible American accent and um I always think I haven't got an accent you do you know I'm kind of neutral this is neutral anyway so I'm not conscious of her having an accent she just spoke it was a beautiful voice and this woman began by telling me my whole life story back to me first of all she was far more positive than I would have been and secondly she told me every single unconfessed sin that I had and she didn't just tell me my sins she also told me my motivation behind them now she did this very kindly and charitably very gently so it was not humiliating but it was strange it was cathartic but it was also strange because you're kind of listening back to your life from a completely different perspective um and when she finished it took a long while actually it took a long while these days it would take ages we'd be there forever take a few days but when she finished she stopped and she said you are happy because you've seen me and I said yes I'm very happy who are you and she said sorry when she said because you've seen me I realized I thought aha it's the young girl in the mountain okay and when I asked her who she was she said I am your mother the mother of God I want you to tell everyone you meet that I am their mother and that I love them now I must explain that when she spoke she made you feel exactly what she meant so when she said that I am their mother she really meant like she had physically given birth to every single one of you every single one of us like we had cost her something that like she was claiming us for herself when she said and that I love them it's like she hugged my soul to show me how she loves you and I'm going to try and describe that our lady looks at you first of all like you're the only child she has like you're the only person in the whole universe she looks at you like you are utterly wonderful and beautiful and gorgeous and marvelous and fantastic she looks at you like you're amazing this is how she looks at you I remember this clearly because I was thinking I'm not marvelous but it's useless you cannot fight her you just have to accept that this is how she loves you she loves you like you are utterly wonderful then she said do not begin to imagine you deserve to see me great God gives Grace as he chooses okay so right at the beginning she said don't worry about this you don't deserve it okay and then I because I wanted to see her again I thought how can I arrange that so I said Blessed Mother I'm very happy to have seen you I'd very much like to die now please and I I was it came from the heart you know because I thought it'd be fantastic I could drop dead in church and go with her because she's so beautiful you know why waste time getting old right and she said would you not like to live a bit longer to help me now when she said a bit longer she made it clear she meant anything from nine days to 90 years but the part when she said to help me she never explained that because she never ever talked about a vocation or the priesthood to me nothing about that now I don't think I was being given a real choice but because I was young and dumb younger and dumber than I am today I thought it was like I had to make a decision so I delayed and I am dinard and finally I said to her all right then but you'd better make sure it's worth my while now when I said that I mean honestly I wasn't trying to be cheeky but I spoke from anguish of heart because I really wanted to go with her so when I said that she laughed and she had a beautiful laugh in case you're going to ask and after she laughed I realized I shouldn't have said that okay and then she took control of the whole conversation like a mother with a idiotic child you know you know when your children embarrass you in public and you think oh who you know who spawned you shut up you know that kind of thing well anyway she took control of the whole conversation after that point and then she said to me the day will come when you will regret ever having seen me and I said this is the best day of my life how can you say that and she said the day will come when you will deny ever having seen me now I have to admit even at that time I was conscious I was thinking this sounds like the prediction of Peter's denial right so you know remember A good rule of thumb is quit while you're behind right quit while you're behind so I thought don't protest don't make too much of a fuss and all of this came true just as she said because within five years of this I was at Medical School in England and in case you ask yes I finished Medical School became a doctor blah blah blah and then joined the order okay uh it's all boring stuff so I won't get into that I was at medical school and I said to her I wish I had never seen you mostly because I felt it like such a burden I thought you know I'm like a freak I can never tell anyone this no one would believe me and also I had not done anything that she had asked me to do so I felt it as such a burden so I said that to her and then also in England lots of people make fun of medjugoria instead of saying medugury they say mega forgery okay and I because I was a Judas and a coward I used to laugh with them and not tell them the truth about what I had seen and experienced and what I actually believed she then said that when I she said when you turn again you must hold firm to Christ okay and again the language is a bit like the gospels turning again but she said hold firm to Christ she never said whole film to medjugoria she just said hold firm to Christ and then she asked me if I was willing to suffer I said yes and she told me where my greatest suffering would come from and she showed me the only thing about the future I remember actually she showed me lots of stuff about the future I remember almost all of them made made me utterly delighted and amazed but she told me I would forget and I said no I won't forget and then I forgot immediately after the conversation but the one thing I remember that she showed me was this that a time is coming with respect to 1991. when almost every Catholic in the world will be ashamed of the words of Jesus they will be ashamed of Jesus and his words and they will say things like we don't remember him saying that or that doesn't apply to us we're far too modern and sophisticated or advanced you know things like that they will kind of turn their backs on Jesus and actually it is a really horrible horrible thing what she showed me it frightened me so much because very very few Catholics will remain faithful very few and those who do will be persecuted terribly by other Catholics okay so when she showed me this I said the first thing that came to mind I said I said blessed mother could you please make sure that my parents die before this happens okay I don't know why I prayed for that but it was the first thing that came to my mind I thought I didn't want them to suffer through such it was horrible it was really horrible and so those of you recording me please don't tell my parents they don't know about this okay they will not be happy I think you have to try and imagine Indian parents you know you saw the mother of God you prayed for us to die what kind of son are you [Laughter] okay actually my parents don't sound like that but I'm my Indian accent is quite lousy as well so I anyway so they won't be pleased um I imagine but anyway that is the one thing I remember that she showed me and then I told her all of my problems and she told me to give my heart to Jesus to pray with a firm faith and to surrender my life to Jesus that's how she said it it was not the answer I wanted but it is the answer that I need and the same applies to all of us she said give your heart to Jesus pray with the firm Faith Surrender Your Life to Jesus okay and then after that she she told me you will never enjoy the support of your own but you will never lack friends among those with a real Devotion to me okay this is a kind of a prophecy I guess because it's or maybe a litmus test is what I mean because I I still keep seeing this every day now being fulfilled and what she said was true it is true and also it's it's related to something else she said to me about are you willing to suffer it's related to those things anyway after that she said she told me not to go looking for her I would not see her again if I did but that she would come for me when I'm dying and then the conversation finished it felt like we spoke for at least four glorious hours four happy glorious hours on my watch it was 20 minutes so I guess it's a bit like Narnia you know time must move differently or something and that was it that's how it came to an end now I do not ask any of you to believe this even if you did believe this this is not proof that medjugoria is real okay and also you know maybe maybe I might be mad maybe I'm lying I don't know I mean I know but you don't know for sure okay I don't ask anyone to believe me at all because I'm not important I'm not a Visionary I'm not special I ask you to believe one thing though I ask you to believe that our lady loves you she looks at you like you are utterly utterly gorgeous and marvelous beautiful and this is how she loves you you must believe this because if you're paying attention this is the only reason I'm telling this story because she said tell everyone you meet that I am their mother and that I love them okay so will you believe that at least that our lady loves you okay half-hearted yes okay now please believe it you must believe it because if our lady loves us like this how must God love us God must be passionately madly in love with us and really everything begins from this when we know how we are loved we want to respond to that love and be converted which brings me now to what I really want to talk about which is the heart of Our Ladies messages in medjugoria and they are known as the five Stones five Stones they're called five Stones because of David the shepherd boy remember he goes to meet Goliath and he takes with him a sling and five Stones five Pebbles from the Stream so these are weapons that our lady gives us and they are weapons to Aid our conversion she comes she says I have come to tell you that God exists and she that we must be converted this is why she comes so the first stone is pray with the heart pray with the heart now in Croatian it's just two words it means Pray by means of the heart pray through the heart pray from the heart pray and mean your prayers okay what does she mean by this I want you to imagine you know when we apologize when we use the word sorry how we misuse the word sorry in England we are masters of passive aggression so you know if someone bumps into me or steps on my foot I will turn to them and say sorry meaning get off my foot you idiot yes okay and were people apologizing to you the last time you were in England they were probably they probably meant it in an aggressive way I don't know okay or think about politicians getting caught getting up to um hanky-panky or fiddling the books and then they say things like I'm sorry for the distress this has caused the people I represent and to my family meaning I'm sorry I got caught I should have been allowed to get away with my fun right okay is that a bit cynical about politicians all right now what happens when a small kid says sorry well usually they start crying why do they cry because they actually mean what they're saying they haven't become jaded and cynical like the rest of us they still mean what they say this is what our lady means by pray with the heart pray and mean your prayers now do you have distractions When you pray anyone yes few people nodding okay I I want to suggest to you that we have distractions because we're not praying from the heart we're telling God what we think he wants to hear rather than what we really want to tell him so we end up praying for World Peace rather than saying could I have a nicer job because my boss is mean to me and I hated there you know we should pray from the heart for what we really want we should tell him the truth in there because he already knows it he can see it imagine a typical scenario you're in church early waiting for Mass preparing for Mass then a gentleman comes along an older gentleman he kneels in the Pew in front of you and he starts praying the rosary and you think how marvelous how edifying to see that that's lovely but the problem is he his Dentures are loose right and they're making this clicking sound as he prays and you think oh For Heaven's Sake how can I concentrate with this going on right okay the next minute a young girl a young lass comes and sits next to you it's summertime she has sacrificed herself because of the cotton famine that year and you're thinking I don't know where to look you know too much ham not enough wrapping right then the next minute your neighbor walked through the church front door and you see her and you think oh that witch how dare she entered the house of God that hypocrite how come the Lord has not struck her dead where she stands okay you know it's true you know it's true and then father comes out of the sacrity to begin mass and you think oh no it's father Leon he's going to go on and on and on for ages and finally you think I can't remember if I locked my front door and I think I left the oven on right and you sit there for the rest of mass worrying about that okay we need to turn all our distractions into prayer say Lord please help this gentleman find a good dentist please help this young Lass learn the virtue of modesty show her the kind of guy she's attracting is a jerk and more importantly her female friends that she dresses for have heads filled with guacamole okay I know it's harsh but fair it's true okay I mean true right I mean if your friends are like Kardashians they might have heads filled with guacamole okay then where are we uh third one your neighbor the witch say Lord convert her convert me bless both of us father Leon please help him to be concise and on time for once and finally your house and the oven say Jesus and your guardian angels please guard my front door and turn off the oven amen okay we need to turn all our distractions into prayer and then you will start to pray properly because most often what happens you know we sit there on a Sunday thinking about what we have to do on a Monday rather than telling God we sit there wondering about it ourselves okay we need to pray from the heart but our lady says something quite strange she says pray the rosary from the heart pray the rosary what is the Rosary I'm going to tell you a quick story when I was a kid when I was a child my parents went out for the evening and they left us to mind ourselves so we got bored and we took down all the old photo albums you know black and white pictures like my grandparents wedding that kind of stuff and we were looking through all these rifling through all of them thinking look it's our family but how come we're not in these pictures you know and when your children you have a real sense of we have to set this right so we got a big orange crayon yes and we drew ourselves in you know so my mother's baptism I remember you know looming over the Cradle is a gigantic stick figure version of my sister with a big crazy grin on her face my parents wedding all four of us are in the front row waving you know we made it we were here okay now despite the trouble we got into what we did has so much in common with medieval Renaissance Italian art okay I don't mean it was a masterpiece it wasn't a masterpiece what I mean is think about uh Italian Renaissance art what do you get you know you have the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem our lady and Saint Joseph adoring Jesus Shepherds angels singing Glory and excelsis wise men bringing gifts and Don Cosimo and his wife Donna Lucrezia you think what are they doing there right it's their orange crayon they could afford Michelangelo to paint them in this is what the rosary is the rosary is your orange crayon to draw yourself into the mysteries of Christ's life because Jesus and Mary are our family we should say how come I wasn't there when such and such happened to them so we'd put ourselves in through the rosary but more than that the rosary is a time machine a time machine I mean this quite literally because when you pray the third joyful mystery for example the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem you're not just trying to imagine the first Christmas the power of the first Christmas the original Christmas Comes to you today now as you pray the third joyful mystery and so on with all the Mysteries of the Rosary so in this sense it is truly a time machine okay but the rosary is powerful during exorcisms the demons say we hate that thing they call it they use the word I can't use they say we hate that poo meaning the Rosary and then they say but thankfully most priests today do not promote it now every Hail Mary you say devoutly from your heart is a hammer blow to Satan's Pride to his head and every Rosary you say devoutly is a chain that binds the demons and weakens their power on this Earth okay so the rosary is powerful in medjugoria what happened was initially the people were praying you know after The Apparition started they prayed seven our fathers seven Hail Mary seven Glory bees just as a Thanksgiving and our lady then said could you please add the Apostles Creed so they did and they still do that today after the evening Mass Apostles Creed then seven our fathers seven Hail Mary seven Glory bees then after a few months he said I'd like you to pray five Decades of the Rosary you know so one third of the Rosary either joyful or sorrowful or Glorious Mysteries so they did that every day and then a few months after that she said thank you very much marvelous could you please pray the complete Rosary Joyful sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries and when she said this the villagers were up in arms and they said what that's impossible we're so busy this takes up so much time and she said you do not understand how little time this takes up of your day what does she mean by that well if you pray the rosary properly it takes about 15 minutes to pray five decades I say 15 minutes as a kind of a guide a gauge it should be minimum 15 minutes if you if you're praying it in less than 15 minutes you're probably praying it too fast okay because I remember this in Singapore we used to gabble through the rosary at Irish speed if you've ever been to Ireland and prayed the rosary with them you'll know what I mean yes okay and I remember we had a Buddhist friend there's a Buddhist friend and he said you Catholics you're so weird what so blessed about a monk swimming and we were all scratching our heads thinking what is he talking about what's he on about and it's only when we started praying the rosary it became clear Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed thou amongst swimming okay so slow down slow down it should take at least 15 minutes but ask yourself if you think it's too much time you know if you the whole Rosary is 45 minutes out of your day if you think that's too much time ask yourself how many 15-minute Slots of your time have you wasted on Snapchat Instagram Twitter Facebook eBay Amazon Days of Our Lives love Island or those of you who've watched the movie Titanic that's three and a half hours of your life completely wasted right it's gone you know because at the end you know Kate Winslet shoves Leonardo off the thingami and he falls down and he drowns right and she kills him because any doctor can tell you you know if you have hypothermia the rule is you're not dead till you're warm and dead so he he was probably still alive when she shoved him off and killed him what a waste what a waste of time three and a half hours wasted right okay I've never watched it actually but I know what happened but I do know what happens it's basically fornication on the high seas followed with by murder and then she turned it into an old woman okay so don't waste your time 15 minutes it all it's all it takes but our lady asks us I can't water down her words she says pray the whole Rosary Joyful sorrowful and glorious you know the complete Rosary this one the one that she gave to Saint Dominic the founder of my order don't ask me about luminous they were not invented when she said this okay so that's the first stone I will get quicker don't worry the second stone is Holy Mass and I said earlier I'm going to talk about Mass Holy Mass what is mass well mass is clearly not what I said it's not earlier remember I said we tell our kids it's a party and a gathering of friends tell them all this rubbish it's not tell them the truth what is mass there's a clue look up what do you see up there mass is something that takes place in heaven read the letter to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation where Christ enters the sanctuary not made by human hands and offers his body and blood to the father in the spirit and he's surrounded by angels and Saints who adore him and worship and cast their crowns before him they're holding crowns here as well cast their crowns before him crying out holy holy holy is the Lord God of armies this is what mass is and we have Clues to this in the mass think about just before the Sanctus before the Holy Holy we say you know with the Angels and Archangels powers and dominions we too join in the unending him as we acclaim so we're saying we're joining in what's going on in heaven and also the first Eucharistic prayer the Roman Canon we say may your angel take the sacrifice to your altar in heaven then as we receive from this altar the most sacred body and blood of your son let us be filled with every Grace and Heavenly blessing who is the Angel taking the sacrifice up it's Jesus actually not that Jesus is an angel it's just an ancient Christian way of referring to Jesus the messenger who connects Heaven and Earth so the mass is worship in heaven that we plug into and join what sometimes people say you know I don't get much out of mass why should I bother you know whatever okay let's think about other things that we don't get much out of for example I don't get much out of celebrating my mother's birthday okay because all her Bingo pals come round and they all make cake and they force feed me cake and then they do the typical Indian thing you are so fat now you know and like I've had enough of this abuse you know a whole lifetime of this so I've decided from this year onwards I'm not going to celebrate my mother's birthday anymore okay because you know why should I be abused like that right I have to stand up for myself don't you agree okay and I don't get anything out of it celebrating my mother's birthday now if you have any sense and I'm sure all of you do because you're looking at me like oh you awful priest I don't like you now but by the way the story is fake all right my mother doesn't have Bingo Pals but the force feeding cake that's true that part is true um you would say to me something like Father your mother's birthday is about her not about you it's not about what you get out of it it's about your mother right okay when someone says to you I don't get much out of mass you tell them the truth it's not about you who says it's about you and what you get out of it it's about what you've come to give Jesus what have you come to bring him because he's expecting you body and soul completely and we have to offer ourselves to him at the office tree when the priest offers up the bread and wine we put ourselves there as well mystically body and soul to be offered up to the father in the Holy Spirit so the mass is not about what we get out of it it's about what we've come to give Jesus to give God okay so Holy Mass is special our lady says go to mass early prepare with silence before Mass she also says let the priests prepare with silence in the Sacristy never leave Mass without making your Thanksgiving understand the importance of the mass and then she says to those who come habitually late to mass it would be better for them not to go go at all okay now that's what she actually said I know it sounds very harsh but that's what she said and I noticed she said habitually late because I guess if you're habitually late you're really saying to God I can't be that bothered about you okay so mass is special mass is beautiful I have a friend I have a classmate who is a martyr father ragid gani from Iraq and he studied with us at the angelicum and he went back to Iraq and he was threatened this back in 2006 he went back in 2007 he was threatened by Al-Qaeda as they were known then Isis today and they told him stop celebrating Mass but he carried on celebrating mass and then one day they caught him outside the church after Mass and they said priest we told you to stop celebrating mass and he said the truth he said without the mass we cannot live and when he did this he was quoting the early Christian Martyrs the Silicon Martyrs they said to the Roman authorities sine Dominica non-posumus without the mass we cannot live and it's true without the mass we can't live and then they shot him and killed him and three deacons with him father agid and the deacons are Martyrs and their cause is coming up before Pope Francis but remember in Iraq Catholics are dying for the mass we have to treasure the mass while we can okay the mass is beautiful okay now I'm going to get even quicker the third stone is Holy Bible Holy Bible our lady says put the Bible in a prominent place in the family house let everyone read it including the children read especially the gospels read it in the morning root it in your heart and live by it especially when things are difficult and by evening you will be stronger than evil okay now would you believe someone if they said to you I love you but I don't want to know anything about you you know shut up don't tell me anything just let me love you ladies would you believe someone quoting you if they said that I know I'm deliberately old-fashioned I don't like dating in words like that courting wooing that that's a proper way anyway would you believe them no you wouldn't would you say welcome to dumpsville population U yes you should get rid of them get rid of them you don't need that kind of nonsense right Saint Jerome says ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ can Jesus believe us when we say we love you Jesus if we never read his book should he believe us okay now I was in the Bible Belt in North Carolina and I was saying to them you need to know the Bible better than Protestants okay because I mean Protestants they have a mutilated Bible thanks to Martin Luther and his Insanity right he chopped out seven books and parts of two other books you know well anyway we have the complete scriptures we need to read them and treasure them you know this this is a true story I was back in my Monastery in London and a friend of mine a Protestant he was coming for lunch at the monastery and he was a bit early and I was having a shower upstairs and he texted me and said Revelation chapter 3 verse 12 or something behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hear my voice I will enter and I will dine with him so I get the text and I think oh you smug so and so you know so I thought I'm going to show him Catholics know the scriptures just as well so I texted back Genesis chapter 3 verse 12. behold I heard the sound of thy voice in the garden but I was naked and afraid and hid myself it is true it's a true story we need to know the Bible better not not to compete with Protestants but because it's our book and we need to read it and live by it read the gospels especially now there is something maybe you're encountering this more and more in the States but you know priests from Kerala Kerala Southwest India where my ancestors are ultimately from and most priests there tend to be charismatics have you noticed that charismatics okay anyway one of the things they do is they use the scriptures to heal people you know they read out the gospels over people and lots of people get cured this is not a surprise the word of God has the power to heal you could be healed through the Eucharist you could be healed through hearing the scriptures because it is the word of God okay so remember that the word of God has this power but I'm not just talking about healing it has the power to heal our souls change us also okay the fourth stone is fasting fasting our lady says fast on Wednesdays and Fridays the best fast is on bread and water with fasting you can stop physical laws and suspend Wars okay now why Wednesday and Friday well Wednesday is the day in Tradition that Judas went to the high priest and said what will you give me if I hand them over to you the day of the Betrayal Friday is the day of our Lord's passion and death actually there's a memory this is an ancient fast this is an Ancient Ancient fast there's a memory of this preserved in some European languages for example in Irish the word for Wednesday is jacadine which means day of the first fast and Friday is jahinia the day of the big fast the day of the principle fast and Thursday which means day between the two fasts okay today is Thursday thank God it's Thursday you can eat today all right okay so there's a memory of this preserved in many European languages and cultures and we've kind of Forgotten this this fasting on Wednesday and Friday is a fast that our lady herself did we know this there's a document called the dedicate we the teaching of The Twelve Apostles which was written maybe as early as A.D 50. so about 20 years after the resurrection and it says there clearly it says you shall fast on Wednesdays and Fridays okay so to fast our lady herself kept to this day all the Eastern Orthodox and all the Eastern Catholics fast on Wednesdays and Fridays it's only Us in the west Latin Catholics that's what we are Latin Catholics we are a bit hopeless at fasting we have two days of fasting left Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and even that we say oh you can have one full meal and then you can have two small meals added together which doesn't add up to one full meal we call this fasting right my Jewish friend said to me you Catholics when you say fasting you mean you don't eat in between meals okay and he's right it's true it's true now fasting is powerful gee why should we fast Jesus expects us expects that we will Fast he says when the bridegroom is taken away then my disciples will Fast he doesn't say my disciples will know how to spell the word fast he says my disciples will Fast and he also says some kind of demons cannot come out except through prayer and fasting what kind of demons especially the addictive ones alcohol gambling drugs pornography these kind of demons latch onto the soul um and are tenacious and to get rid of them we need prayer and fasting to be free to be utterly free to follow Jesus okay but all of us need to fast a lady doesn't Force us to fast but she invites us having said that she's quite strict about this she says no one is excused from fasting not even the elderly only the sick are excused and then she says but for the sake let him who's who they know what they must give up let him who smokes give up cigarettes let him who drinks stop drinking alcohol let him who watches television turn off the TV she gives three examples what the sick could do so I think I mean and she's quite strict about TV actually she says if you watch television you have no peace in you and then you are unable to pray and if she said that about television in the 1980s you know I mean what did we have it was all harmless stuff right A Team MacGyver you know with a toothbrush and whatever he makes a bomb or a plane or something I mean there's all kind of harmless stuff even Magnum PI and now what would she say about television and the internet now good Lord I yeah she'd say turn it off and throw it away I think I imagine but she says we need to be able to pray and now when we fast we are saying Jesus I love you more than these other things you know so for example lent has just started yesterday you know unless you eat a pound of chocolate every day for your in your whole life giving up chocolate for Lent is not a big sacrifice is it I don't think it's a big sacrifice and also you know sometimes I I've done this myself you know sometimes uh misled pastors will say things like you know rather than giving up something it's more important you take on something positive you can take on something positive anytime but lent is about giving up making a sacrifice there's power in making a sacrifice because you're saying to Jesus I love you more than Instagram and Facebook and Days of Our Lives I love you more than my cell phone I love you more than TV I love you more than Netflix I love you more than booze I love you more than gambling I love you more than these other things that's what we're doing and when we do that there is great power you know I always think of you know when people say I've given up given up chocolate for Lent I always say I've given up champagne and caviar for Lent you know it's a big hardship for me okay no no okay our sacrifice must be one that really makes a difference that really hurts us to an extent and then it's a proper sacrifice okay but fasting is powerful I encourage you pray for the grace to be able to fast and then just do it if you look if you're diabetic you know don't go fasting and then you know you get into a diabetic coma and say oh you know that little brown dude dressed as a Ku Klux klansman told me to fast you know don't blame me about for this all right okay be sensible but pray for the grace to fast and then do it now people often ask me how long on Wednesday how long on Friday the whole day 24 hours so long as it's Wednesday so long as it's Friday and then they say oh Father Can I have bread with olives on it and a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar and whatever look bread which is bread not cake okay and then what kind of water water which is water not gin or vodka okay H2O two molecules of hydrogen one of oxygen bonded in a covalent bond and then the molecules bonded to each other with weak Van Der waals forces right water okay but you know and then sometimes people say father I can't eat any bread what can I do I say congratulations just have water it's much easier you don't have to think all right but honestly pray for the grace and to just do it you honestly all of you are able all of you are able to do this uh it's the mental hurdle is the bigger one not the physical one the physical hurdle is nothing you'll get over it after the after the first two years you know after the after the first two weeks okay now the last Stone last but not least is confession our lady says the West has forgotten the power of confession if people in the west went to confession once a month whole regions of the West would be converted go to confession and make a simple humble and complete confession of all your sins and then she said again go to confession at least once a month now I think of confession as doing my laundry how often do you wash your clothes every Easter and Christmas tide you only wash your clothes at your First Holy Communion and you haven't bothered since every three years every seven years what am I bid okay right look if we don't go to confession regularly everyone here is going to know I mean sorry if we don't wash our clothes regularly everyone here is going to know right we'll be in one corner and everyone else will be in the other Corner clutching their smelling salts right and trying not to gag and puke right okay if we don't go to confession regularly the angels will be trying not to gag and puke they tell a story of Saint Catherine of Siena that great saint of my order this very pompous arrogant proud person went to see her and for the whole interview Catherine turned away 90 degrees like this and she spoke to the person like this and only when they left she turned back and Catherine's friend said why did you do that that's pretty strange and she said couldn't you smell the stench the stench of the person's soul okay so we need to go and confess now how do we confess our sins to make a good confession to make a good confession remember this simple mnemonic three words confess your sins period confess your sins okay and by emphasizing each word you'll know how to confess first word confess it must be a confession if you go to the priest and say maybe I did this maybe I did that then the priest is thinking maybe I absolve you maybe I don't right okay second word confess your sins they must be yours father I get so mad my husband makes me so Furious I have no peace he's such an idiot still he's not as bad as my daughter-in-law oh she's awful I hate her and I don't like how she's raising my grandkids still she's a saint compared to my pastor oh the new one he's terrible he's doing all these old-fashioned things I can't stand it okay if you want to confess other people's sins I'm happy to absolve them they'll be okay you can go to hell but your family will be all right okay remember confess your sins life is too short just confess your own sins then third word confess your sins they must be sins do not confess feelings emotions sentiments father my brother is a drug addict he wanted money I didn't give him anything well I think he did the right thing I still feel so bad though well you did the right thing I feel so bad though well you need therapy look do not confess your feelings confession is not therapy just confess your sins remember to be humble you know don't come in and tell the priest how fantastic you are father I'm amazing I'm marvelous I haven't killed anyone when people do that I always think I want to canonize you now I want right now and by canonize I mean I want to put you in a cannon and launch you far away okay so don't do that don't do that and also resist the temptation I mean think about who who does that in the Gospels the Pharisee I thank thee Lord that I'm not like other men not even like this sinner here I fast twice a week I give tithe in all I own and blah blah blah yeah don't come boasting about how wonderful you are okay be humble before God I don't mean the priest before God now resist the temptation to tell stories I say this on behalf of every priest throughout the whole world resist the temptation to tell stories father last Tuesday no I tell a lie it was Wednesday I remember because that Wednesday is bingo night and we have Wheel of Fortune I the doorbell rang I went to look through the people and it was my friend Betty and I had such a fright so I ran out through the back door I put on my brown shoes not my black ones and I leapt Over the Hedge behind the house into the alleyway and I was trying to run away from Betty but she nipped round and she caught me and Betty said oh Mildred you're wearing your brown shoes not your black ones when you tell stories like this like any Story I mean here like what is the priest supposed to think you're confessing a fashion faux pas what you know just confess your sins do not tell stories okay and every priest in the whole world will thank me then I never get tired hearing confessions in magically you know you you end up hearing confession for like six hours sometimes I never get tired of confessions but stories are draining absolutely draining okay and last of all but not least I want you to remember confession is not just the Forgiveness of sins it's a Sacrament which means god is giving us Grace to change us so think of think of confession as like a like an ATM machine that's malfunctioning and churning out all this cash and you can take as much as you can carry it's legal you can take as much as you can carry how often would you go at Christmas and Easter tide or you just go at your First Holy Communion and then not bother going after that how often would you go who would go every day okay a few honest people the rest of you are liars those who did not put up your hands when you know all of us would be there every day every single day right and we would we would bring our family and friends with us forming a big line come on come on fill it up you know all our plastic bags okay I said that for a reason you can carry you can take as much as you can carry God gives us grace to the extent that we are contrite remember Contrition is not about beating your breast and saying I'm so awful I'm terrible Contrition is being sorry for our sins moved by the love of God because God loves us so much and we turned away from him so it's trust in Divine Mercy that's what Contrition is okay so to that extent God gives us Grace so you know the the more arrogant and proud We Are The more self-sufficient I'm I'm okay father I'm good I haven't killed anyone that kind of person doesn't get much Grace it's very sad but the humbler they are I'll tell you the truth and I'm sure every priest will agree with me when we hear a humble confession where you always think this person is so holy I always think this person is holier than me whereas when someone comes in boasting about how wonderful they are I always think where's my Canon I need my Cannon right and to launch them again so and also don't be worried about what the priest thinks of you we never ever remember your sins I never remember I remember one incident like I was with four friends and I was I was saying to them I thank God I've never heard any of your confessions you know because you know it's kind of awkward if they're your friends you know and and all four of them said yes you have father you know I couldn't believe it I thought really but I don't remember I do not remember I never remember I have a terrible memory you know and also I I get this a lot in Magic area people will come and say father as I told you yesterday I'm thinking and I look at them thinking I've never seen you in my life you know and this is not just an inverse racism on my part it's not me looking and thinking oh white people all look the same you know this I honestly do not remember so anyway so don't worry about what the priest thinks of you just come and confess your sins between you and Jesus the priest is there to give you God's forgiveness okay so these are the five Stones I'm going to recap them pray with the heart pray the rosary from the heart every day the complete rosary Holy Mass treasure it prepare for it beforehand with silence and after with Thanksgiving number three Holy Bible let everyone in the family read it especially the gospels in the morning rooted in your heart and live by it number four fast Wednesdays and Fridays and make sacrifices remember also our lady said at Fatima Today more souls go to hell because not enough people pray and make sacrifices for them so and also in Magic Oris he says I cannot convert people without your fasting and your sacrifices so remember our fasting has such power and value you can convert lots of people and number five confession confess your sins humbly and simply and completely trusting in God's mercy for you and go once a month at least or if you need to more often but at least once a month so these are the five stones of medjugoria the heart of what our lady is asking us to do the reason she does this is she's trying to move us from a kind of minimalist religion to living for God living a true relationship because how would you feel ladies how would you feel if your husbands said to me Father what's the least what's the minimum we need to do for our wives to be decent husbands would you be impressed with that kind of question no you wouldn't you know should I buy chocolates and flowers once a year maybe a once a year grunt extra appreciatively when she cooks or something okay no we should never ask what's the minimum in a relationship and likewise with God we're in a relationship with God so our lady is trying to move us away from the least to actually living our faith and our relationship with God so on that note I'm going to end and maybe just for a few minutes not too long if there any pressing questions on medjugoria or what I've said I will try and answer any questions yes sir how long ago how long has The Franciscan order been in the Parish of medjugoria um at least five six hundred years because that region only the franciscans were allowed by the ottoman Turks the Turks were ruling it the Muslims and they only allowed the franciscans to minister there but even then they had to hide themselves so they dressed in Lay clothes and all the people were taught never called them Father because you know then you're exposed as a priest they'll be killed so in their culture they're used to calling priests uncle you know so they used to call them Uncle so that the Muslim authorities were never suspicious of who they were anyone else [Music] okay how how often can you eat bread and water on a fasting day it's up to you entirely up to you okay I imagine if you have three meals a day I suppose you could eat it three times but if you don't want to eat it then don't if you really think you're gonna faint then keep eating it continuously throughout the day but it's up to you okay now I should clarify the status of medjugoria is that it is open for anyone to visit medjugoria has not been condemned neither has it been approved but it is open for anyone to visit and one of the things that holy mother Church looks for is the presence of pilgrims coming to a place that's not yet approved so for example Fatima and Lords when they were approved the Judgment of the bishop said one of the reasons they gave for approval is the continual presence of pilgrims coming here from the very beginning so you know at Fatima if people had waited for approval no one would have seen the you know the hundred thousand would not have been there to see the miracle of the Sun Lords if people have waited for approval all the early Miracles would not have happened like the the blind Stone Mason and also the the woman who plunged her child into the into the the spring you know those Miracles would not have happened if people had waited so you are entirely allowed to go to medjugoria okay so just want to clarify that in case someone has told you that you're not allowed to go yes sir okay the question is what about alleged messages which appear to contradict the faith I know all of the messages of mejugorie and that is not one of the messages okay it often appears on the internet I've seen it on many sites what she said was they she was asked are you the source of all Graces and she said no I am not the source of all Graces okay there's another thing also that appears on the internet from people who are opposed to magically they say oh our lady said that all religions are equal before my son this kind of thing you know this there's a good principle of Saint Thomas Aquinas we have to remember whatever is received is received according to the manner of the recipient okay so people in an apparition here and understand things in their own limited finite vocabulary so for example in magically in that region race ethnicity and religion are entirely the same thing in the minds of the people there if you're croat you're Catholic if you're a Muslim you're bosniak if yours Orthodox your Serb it's indistic indistinguishable for them so this there's a message where our lady is supposed to have said all religions are equal before my my son something like that and this is not true it's the understanding of the Visionary who then clarified saying yeah there's no difference between serbs and bosniaks and croats where equally children of uh our lady and she wants to lead us to God to Jesus the only savior okay so again this is I think sort of deliberate twisting and taking out of context God is suffering over all things okay but I would not say that that therefore means that God wills it God does not will the diversity of religions okay we can say in his passive will he has willed it but then you can say in that same passive will you can say God passively Wills the destruction of of unborn children God passively Wills the Holocaust and the killing of Jews that's and it sounds terrible but you know people understand it in a different way God doesn't will it but he permits it okay so but God is suffering over all things it doesn't mean that Islam is from God or or any other religion is from God there's only one way to God Jesus Christ and the church that he established the Catholic Church all right yes [Music] is Mary still appearing to many of the Visionary she appears it is reported that three of The Visionaries still see her every day the other three one of them sees her once a month and the other two see her once a year but yeah three of them still claim that they see her every day in the last uh year and a half Pope Francis sent an Archbishop called Henrik hoser his title is Apostolic visitator you should look that up and see what it implies in canon law but as Apostolic visitations come his concern is nothing to do with the authenticity or inauthenticity of the operations and messages it's all to do with the pilgrims who come to medjugoria and the Pastoral Care that they need so he's there Rome has taken an active interest in medjugoria which is good because people do need good pastoral care there so the Archbishop has been living there since last I forget now is it July or September but since maybe July I think he came in that's right he came in July Saint Martha's feast and he's been there since then so it's quite encouraging actually that he's there it's really good we need we need a lot of things in medjugoria a lot of interventions I think you know I mean I'm in charge of the English mass you know and I have to say to every priest who comes there father you know and I I'm trying not to be not to sound condescending but I have to remind them father please you know say the black do the red you know out of the missile because it's not obvious to priests in the English-speaking world there's a lot of a lot of crazy things that go on in the church worldwide and then in medjugoria I see I see like a microcosm of that so we're trying to get people you know please just be Catholic be sound and do what holy mother Church expects of us rather than making up some mad thing okay anyone else no okay so I'll end on that note let's just let's pray for Archbishop HOSA and all those who work for the pastoral care of medjugoria we'll pray three Hail Marys Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus holy Mary Mother of God pray for our sinners now and at the hour of our death amen Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus holy Mary Mother of God pray for our sinners now and at the hour of our death amen Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus holy Mary Mother of God pray for our sinners now and at the hour of our death in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit amen thank you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Tekton Ministries

Views: 350,516

Keywords: Medjugorje, Messages of Medjugorje, Fr. Leon Pereira, 5 stones of Medjugorje, 5 stones, Dominican, Fr. Leon

Id: 0gb4FJx4kTQ

Length: 77min 31sec (4651 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 08 2019